The International Day for Biological Diversity (or World Biodiversity Day) is a United Nations–sanctioned international day for the promotion of biodiversity issues. It is currently held on May 22.From its creation by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in 1993 until 2000, it was held on December 29 to celebrate the day the Convention on Biological Diversity went into effect. On December 20, 2000, the date was shifted to commemorate the adoption of the Convention on May 22, 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, and partly to avoid the many other holidays that occur in late December.This year the theme is Island Biodiversity. Islands house a disproportionate amount of the world’s biodiversity: although less than 5% of the world’s land area, they are home to over 20% of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity, and in the last 500 years 80% of vertebrate extinctions have been on islands. Invasive species have been implicated in over half of these extinctions.The Threatened Island Biodiversity database lists over 500 islands with critically endangered species (the highest level of threat on the IUCN red list), over 80% of which have invasive species present. Ten critically endangered insular bird species have been saved from extinctionby direct conservation intervention, including the Tahiti monarch (Pomarea tigra), coincidentally the 2014 winner of the first Birdlife International People’s Choice Award.This year’s theme was chosen because 2014 is also the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). It is certainly not just conincidence that these two have occurred together. The fate of island biodiversity and small island states are intimately entwined, mutually reinforcing one another. Threats such as climate change do not discriminate between the livelihoods of humans, fauna or flora. To address such threats requires the empowerment of island communities, who can be confident they have the support of their big continental brothers and sisters, to work towards better livelihoods for themselves, and all the cultural and biological diversity under their custodianship.Check out any celebrations happening near you and spare a thought for your favourite island in the world today (especially if you’re not lucky enough to own an island).

According to the National Department of Hydrometeorology of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, currently, water richness holds 40-100% of decade norm in Quba-Khachmaz region rivers of Major Caucasus, 30-80% in Minor Caucasus rivers, 65-95% in Lankaran-Astara region rivers

To provide sustainability in the rehabilitation of Absheron lakes, according to the Decree ‘On Measures to improve the environmental situation of Zigh lake’ of the President of the Republic Ilham Aliyev dated 15 October, 2014, realization of works for rehabilitation of the aforementioned lake has started.

The area of the world's forest cover is 4 milliard ha. Of this 809 million ha falls in the share of Russian Federation, 478 million square km belongs to Brazil, 310 million ha pertains to Canada and 303 million ha is in USA